The Armor Of God - Part 1 - Stand Firm

In this episode of Speaking of Faith, Bishop DeDe and Adam explore the themes of faith, community, and the spiritual struggles we face in today's divided world. They discuss the importance of standing firm in one's beliefs, the concept of spiritual warfare, and the need for compassion over division. The conversation emphasizes the role of love and clarity in navigating conflicts and encourages listeners to reflect on their values and actions in the context of their faith.

Takeaways

• This is a space where we talk about our faith.
• The armor of God is about shoring up who we are.
• We are called to stand firm in our beliefs.
• Spiritual warfare is often misunderstood.
• Misery loves company; we must choose joy.
• The battle is not against flesh and blood.
• Compassion is essential in times of division.
• Clarity about God brings peace.
• Love is dedicated and sometimes hard.
• We must treat each other with respect. 

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Faith and Community
01:05 The Armor of God: Standing Firm in Faith
07:44 Spiritual Warfare: Understanding Our Struggles
11:01 Compassion Over Division: A Call to Action
18:35 Finding Clarity in Confusion: The Role of Love

AI Disclosure: To support our staff in their limited time, many of our episode summaries are first generated by AI and then edited by the Communications Director to accurately reflect and preview our podcast episodes.

Transcript

Bishop DeDe (00:09.764)
Hey friends, welcome to the podcast. I'm DeDe Duncan-Probe. I'm the Episcopal Bishop of Central New York. That's Canada to Pennsylvania, Utica to Elmira and all the beautiful people and places in between. I'm joined today by Adam Eichelberger, our Diocesan Communications Director, and it is a joy to be with you on this day. There's a lot happening in our world. There's a lot of

feelings that people are having and so wherever you are in that feeling department, welcome to this podcast. This is a space where we talk about our faith. We're speaking of our faith and hopefully speaking of our faith in ways that draw us more closely to what we truly believe. So whether you're an Episcopalian, whether you're a Christian, whether you have some other faith, you are welcome to be part of this seeking out the

the better part of our life, the higher power to use language from AA. So today's passage we're gonna be focusing in on is a continuation of last week and is kind of struck my, it's something that has kind of come to mind in the midst of all that's happening in the world. And so that's Ephesians 6, we're gonna be focusing in on verses 10 through 14.

Next week we'll take it a bit further, but we're going to really let this passage wash over us and speak to our hearts in this time of conflict and division. I want to note that whatever I say, often people get confused and think I'm being partisan. I am not. I am here to proclaim Jesus, and I'm here to proclaim the scripture of God, the word of God that is Jesus to me and to you and to our world. And so,

In this space, when I talk about things, just know that my focus is solely on proclaiming Jesus. Now let's get into this passage. So this is what it says, finally be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities.

Bishop DeDe (02:33.296)
against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God so that you may be able to withstand on that evil day, and having done everything to stand, to stand firm. And then 14 begins with stand therefore. I'm always struck when I read this about the repetition of the word stand.

And so in your faith and your life, what does it mean to you when you stand for something? Last week in our podcast, I talked about whether if we don't know what we stand for, then we can fall for anything. That's a truism that continues to resonate in this time. To know what it is that is the prime purpose of our life, what we are intentionally standing for. And last week we talked a bit about this passage having been

conscripted in ways that are not in keeping with the passage. This is not about battle gear necessarily. This is not about an offensive of God. This is about a defensive empowerment of God that will have offensive parts to it. We are gonna go somewhere with it. But really the armor of God is about shoring up who we are, our ability to stand there for. I'm always reminded of a

Kind of a joke really, but it's true thing we all know about the young boy whose mother says, I told you to sit down and he says, I'm not sitting. And she says, you sit down right now or this will happen. And the young boy is sitting down and saying, I may be sitting down on the outside, but I'm standing up on the inside. And I think for us as people of God, so often our ability to stand in Jesus.

is our kind of defiant focus on what we believe to be true. That we are determined and dedicated to our belief in Jesus as Christians, our beliefs as people, and so we stand in those truths. Now, backing up in this passage, I've kind of started with the end, I'm working backwards. When it talks about the struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh,

Bishop DeDe (04:55.972)
but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of the present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. This is very deep, prophetic, and yet troubling language in a way. This idea that cosmic powers and authorities, and so if we think about the Christians,

in Ephesus, if we think about Christians down through the centuries, if we think about people of faith, we know that within the church and without, there is this temptation, this battle, this struggle, this spiritual movement that happens within us. Those times where we may look at something and feel drawn to just forget about Jesus and because we just like it that way.

that recognizing that is part of what a spiritual battle is about, that we feel drawn, we feel tempted, we feel that we're battling something. And most of the time we get tempted to feeling like we're battling people. Like what happens to us when we feel bad, it must be someone's fault. When we feel confused, it must be because of that. Rather than recognizing that within us, God is at work.

And this redemptive work of God is a movement of God within us that goes back and forth. And so those spiritual forces can be confusing. At times we think we're doing the right thing and it turns out we did the wrong thing. At times we're certain we did the wrong thing and we did the right thing. Sometimes we don't always know, we're not the best experts about what we're doing. And it's in those places that we turn to God and give over

our power to the power of God and recognize that these cosmic forces, the power of the universe that created all of heaven and earth is at work in us, is with us. And so we may not always understand this incomprehensible power. And then these places when we don't understand to stop ourselves and to recognize that God surrounds and covers us.

Bishop DeDe (07:15.642)
that God is with us. And our calling is not to understand, mean, like with the disciples, thank goodness, they never got Jesus at all. They were always struggling to understand what is this thing that Jesus is doing. And God was always at work in and around them. We do not have to comprehend the length and width and depth and height of God to know that God is greater than we know. So in this time,

When there's so much division in our world, and last week when we met, I talked about we were meeting before we knew the outcome of the election. And there's many things we could say about the election, whether we're delighted, whether we're devastated. But the thing that I think as people of faith is so important to highlight is no matter what side, partisan side you may be on, we are divided.

And we are tempted in this time to dehumanize the other. Well, those people who voted this way, they're just fill in the blank. Or those people who voted this way, well, they're just this way. The denigration of people who are devastated is not a good look. It shows our weak humanity and our sinfulness that we would look at someone who's despairing and either laugh at them, mock at them.

or somehow put them down. No matter where we are in a partisan spectrum, as people of God, we are called to compassion and mercy and grace. We're called to remember what love truly is. And if you are a person who's a Christian, this is a great time to read Corinthians and to look at that 13th chapter with Paul and say, what is love? It's not a clanging gong or a banging cymbal, but.

but the power of love in us, what it truly means to be a follower of Jesus, what it truly means to be a person of love and dignity and respect. So this division, and to look at the United States is so drastically divided, almost right down the middle, and so bifurcated between despair and delight. There's very few people in the middle who are like, yeah, you know, either way it's fine.

Bishop DeDe (09:40.276)
the majority are very divided. And what we know from scripture and what we know from American history, that Abraham Lincoln was quoting scripture, that a house divided cannot stand. In this space as people of God, we are not called to division, but to clarity. And I think that may be why this passage from Ephesians stands out to me. Because it's talking about this very moment when there's all of this movement, all of this, you know,

fighting and infighting and dehumanization, that we are to recognize that this is always God's call to us, that we be healed, that we be redeemed of our selfish gain, we be redeemed of our judgmentality, we are being redeemed of our tendency to dehumanize people who differ from us, and especially our fear, and to recognize that whether, regardless of who you voted for,

Fear is a driving force right now. It's just driving people apart. And so we recognize that to be part of this battle that it's not against enemies of flesh and blood, but against spiritual brokenness. This idea that fear is what should motivate us rather than God's redeeming grace or love. Now I've talked for a fair bit.

Adam, what thoughts do you have as we think about this passage and especially where we are in the United States in this time?

Adam Eichelberger (11:09.93)
So Bishop, think that for me, what this, when we look at what Paul, when we look at what the writer of Ephesians is saying to us in the scripture, the two things that stand out to me are first and foremost what you said, like the constant call to stand, that we are called to plant our feet firmly and to stand up when we see things that don't match the values or the message of Jesus in the gospel.

Bishop DeDe (11:16.868)
Mm-hmm.

Bishop DeDe (11:24.302)
Mm-hmm.

Bishop DeDe (11:28.196)
Mm-hmm.

Bishop DeDe (11:37.028)
Mm-hmm.

Adam Eichelberger (11:37.346)
that when we see these things that fly contrary to the heart of God, it is our job as those who profess Jesus to stand. But also it's a reminder to me that there's kind of two things that I hear. Like first of all, like you started talking about this idea of spiritual warfare. And for some of us, I'm gonna speak from my own experience coming up in the church that this was like a bogeyman that was presented to me that like.

Bishop DeDe (11:45.742)
Mm-hmm.

Bishop DeDe (11:55.343)
Mm.

Bishop DeDe (12:02.596)
Yeah. Yes.

Adam Eichelberger (12:04.822)
Spiritual warfare was like the thing of scary movies that it was like like somebody being possessed by a demon and Exorcists or or like all of these like really scary things like big flaming scary devils and things like that and that is not the reality of spiritual warfare and if I can lean into this a little bit I'm gonna go I'm gonna I'm gonna lean into this a little bit and say this that I think that

Bishop DeDe (12:08.26)
Mm-hmm.

Bishop DeDe (12:18.672)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-mm. Right.

Yeah.

Adam Eichelberger (12:31.244)
When I think about the devil, because it talks about the devil, the thing that always comes to my mind is a saying that we hear all the time, and it's not necessarily in the Bible, but it rings true for me. What is the devil love? The devil is miserable, if we think about it, this thing that is against the spirit of God. God is what? Joyful, right? What is the opposite of that joy? Just a misery. If the devil is miserable, what does the devil love? Misery loves company.

right? And so what the devil does is draws us away from what God is calling us to, which is that heart of love and compassion and mercy. And it reminds me that especially in this verse where it says, the battle is not against flesh and blood. And it seems really hard when we have so much division in our country to not point the finger at somebody else and say, you're the problem. Let's take a step back. Our neighbor isn't the problem.

Bishop DeDe (13:00.932)
Mm.

Bishop DeDe (13:23.672)
Right.

Yep. No. That's right.

Adam Eichelberger (13:28.256)
It is something that dwells up inside of us because we as people are naturally anxious or we're afraid and we're trying to find ways to to relieve that anxiety or that fear. And what we're called to do based on Ephesians is not look at other people and point the finger and say that they're the problem. What we're called to do is to reach out and be compassionate. We're called to

Bishop DeDe (13:35.044)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Bishop DeDe (13:50.608)
Mm-hmm.

Bishop DeDe (13:55.736)
Right.

Adam Eichelberger (13:57.826)
have these deeper conversations. And dare I say, if this is a means or a question of spiritual warfare, it's action, but we also need to equally pray. You know what I mean? We can't just go into it and be unprepared. That's what, you know, as we continue to unpack this section of Ephesians, it's about preparedness. It's about us being ready to do the work. And for me personally, Bishop, it's the action.

Bishop DeDe (14:11.566)
Mm-hmm.

Bishop DeDe (14:21.843)
Right. Well, and I think that's part of the push of this passage that's really important to get at is it starts off by saying, hey, pay attention to what's really happening. This isn't about a partisan division. This isn't about what your neighbor did. This isn't about opinion or platforms or

Adam Eichelberger (14:26.946)
but it's also the prayer to back it up.

Adam Eichelberger (14:40.12)
Mm.

Bishop DeDe (14:47.194)
personalities or any of these things. What is happening in this time is this cosmic, if you want to use that terminology, but this battle that is within us and we feel it. Anytime where we feel the temptation to be hateful, we feel the battle within us that we want to say the hurtful words or we want to look at those people and put them down because they clearly are not as

as as we are. And what this is pointing to is saying, wait a minute, wait a minute, back up. That isn't where the battle is. The battle isn't with a person at Pennsylvania Avenue, the battle isn't with your neighbor, the battle isn't with these things. It begins and starts with our standing for something. And as followers of Jesus, what we stand for.

is God and that is a working out. mean there's other places in Paul, in the Pauline text where Paul talks about working out your faith, that you work out your faith and you incite one another to good works and we have this kind of competitive thing and then of course in Hebrews we're talking about running the race and how we prepare for this, you and so it kind of goes into a sports metaphor. But here it's talking about okay all of this stuff is coming at you.

And I think, especially this last week, if you've been in the United States, you feel like a whole bunch of stuff's been coming at you, no matter what part of the side of the aisle you're on. But all that's coming at us, we need to clarify what's really happening and to remember who we are. So having done everything to stand, stand there for in knowing God, stand there for in knowing that you may be able to withstand in the, the evil day, having done everything to stand.

to stand firm, to stand there for, and it goes on and we'll talk more next week about what we put on, but that in this time, to know what we're about is the battle. And really, it's kind of the battle is won and lost by the clarity of our convictions. mean, Rosa Parks famously said that once you have that conviction that what you're doing is right, the fear goes away. So what we...

Bishop DeDe (17:09.334)
are standing against is really our own fear, our own human brokenness and sinfulness. And anything, you know, that log in our own eye, anything we want to say about another person, we don't want, we want to make sure that we've paid attention where we need repentance, where we need to stop and say, okay, I've gotten carried away by my fear. I've gotten carried away by this, you know, the spiritual warfare that's happening between

compassion and judgment or fear and love or whatever we want to, words we want to put on the two sides. And there's obviously more than two, but that the rulers and authorities and the cosmic powers that all of these things that are coming at us that are so overwhelming and so loud to turn down the volume, to remember who we are, to remember where our feet are.

that we stand on the foundation of God and to remember that God is with us, not in a partisan way again, not winners and losers, because one thing we do need to recognize in the United States is no one really won last week. Whenever the country is this divided, we're all losing something. We're losing relationship, we're losing the ability to have conversations, we're losing our community of coming together across difference.

A lot of the things we've held dear as people of the United States. And to remember therefore about God, that God is with us and what protects us and that our health truly is in the name of the Lord. That what really brings healing to our lives is not agreement, but clarity. It's not, you know, coming to some resolution with people in different partisan contexts.

Adam Eichelberger (18:57.582)
Mm.

Bishop DeDe (19:05.242)
but rather what brings us peace is when we know that we are clear about God and our relationship with God. And in that is where we find peace because then we can rest about struggling and who's right and who's wrong. Is it about Jesus? And Michael Curry of course famously said, if it isn't about love, it isn't about God. To stop ourselves and say, where is the love in this time? Where am I called to be compassionate?

Sometimes with love, it's not, love is also, have a poor theology of love. We think of love as some sort of feel good, kind of happy, clappy, you know, thing. And love is very dedicated. Love is hard. And that's why I think we shy away from it so much. We throw out love your neighbors, yourself, and then we talk about things we like. Because loving our neighbor means when they are doing something that really irks us.

We act in their best interest and we set aside our own desires. It also means at times we do the thing we don't like doing, which is we say no. Sometimes we need to say a loving thing is no, you may not play on the highway. You know, we're talking about like with a kid. No, you may not denigrate me because God loves me. And no, I may not denigrate you because God loves you.

Adam Eichelberger (20:04.238)
Mm.

Adam Eichelberger (20:18.797)
Mm-hmm.

Bishop DeDe (20:30.444)
And so together we come and we stand in this space where there is space. The other thing about standing, has to be space to stand. I don't know if you've ever tried to stand where there's not space for your feet, but you've got to have some space around you to actually stand, to have existence where there's, there's a common place of stability. And right now we don't feel stability because we don't have stability because we're trying to fix what isn't the problem.

Adam Eichelberger (20:39.298)
Mm-hmm.

Bishop DeDe (21:00.304)
We're trying to come to agreement when what the problem is, is we don't have a safe place to stand there for. And to look at one another and say, our battle is about love and hate. Our battle is about compassion and really dehumanization. So dear Liz, these are very heavy things. If you are listening to this podcast and.

trying to figure out kind of where you are in this, be patient with yourself and be gentle with yourself. What we know most of all this last week is that it's been a tough week for families. We're approaching Thanksgiving, I'm kind of giving a timestamp here, we're a couple of weeks out from Thanksgiving, and as we prepare to gather with people we love, but with whom we may disagree, this Thanksgiving takes on kind of bigger,

Adam Eichelberger (21:52.834)
Hmm.

Bishop DeDe (21:57.526)
import and for some of us the the loving thing might be to say you know this year I'm gonna take a beat we're gonna do a different thing because we're not quite ready to be in the same space or This year we're gonna do the same thing we've done, but we're gonna set up different parameters We're gonna agree that the message of today is football and turkey and stuffing, but is not partisan politics

and that today we're going to talk to each other with love and respect. And when we fall, when we slip off of that, we're going to come back and change, knowing that our battle is not against flesh and blood, but it begins a spiritual brokenness. And I don't know, there's many people writing about this and what the brokennesses are of this time and what is broken and what needs to be fixed. But what we can know for sure is it begins with human dignity.

unconditional personal regard for the other, that it begins with respect. We don't have to agree. We have to agree that we're going to treat each other with respect. We don't have to have the same opinion, but we have to agree that we're not going to say hurtful, hateful words because we're standing in the love of God and standing with that love of God.

So thank you for your time today for this podcast. Next week, we're going to go a bit deeper. We're going to talk about what is this armor of God thing and what, is, you know, a breastplate of righteousness or a belt of truth. What does that really mean in our day to day lives or what could it mean? And in this week, I hope we will pray for one another that we will attune our ears to the love of God. And when we find ourselves getting overwhelmed and

and overworked by the fears and the forces of this world that will slow down and re-remember who we are and whose we are. Know that you are loved by God, that you're important, that you're valued, and that together we stand together. May God bless and keep you, and I look forward to seeing you very soon.